"One should doubtless keep an open mind...though open at both ends, like the food pipe, and have a capacity for excretion as well as intake." -- Northrop Frye, 'The Great Code'

Saturday, May 21, 2016

Ontario's Leap towards economic oblivion

Rex Murphy:

Remember the Leap Manifesto? That was the wild-eyed ultra-greenist,
anti-capitalist dogma-sheet that Avi Lewis and Naomi Klein dragged out ...... Kill oil. Kill all fossil fuels. No pipelines. No
refineries. Cripple the economy. Deny the poorer nations ... a cascade of unexamined and baseless assertions, a manifest distaste
for reality, a raw pulse of dogmatic certitude, and a set of
prescriptions that would obliterate a modern economy, push hundreds of
thousands out of work, and bring the industrial age back to the days of
horse cart and covered wagons for transportation. ...The authors of Leap were ... merely projecting as it were
private fantasies into the public arena. If, however, they had presented
in Ontario, if they had urged Ontario’s government with the dreams they
urged ... I suspect they would have been mocked as timid,
restrained, unimaginative, even perhaps, regressive. For the Wynne
government’s recently revealed plans for the ‘transformation of the
Ontario energy industry,” is of a reach and scope, depth and range, that
defies all comparison.

Even if there were good evidence that alarmists are right (and there isn't) Canada's contribution to global CO2 emissions is tiny and it's effect on global climate un-measurable. But politicians like Wynne (and Trudeau and ... ) behave as if the world's fate hinges on Canada (or Ontario or ...) taking the lead in sacrificing their citizens' standard of living to Gaia. This is insanely reckless. Canada has no obligation, moral or otherwise, to move any faster on this than the least committed of the largest GHG emitting nations. Doing so is not only climatically pointless, it unnecessarily risks wrecking our economy. We are being led either by nitwits or by cynical tax-grabbers or both.

3 comments:

Canada's contribution to global carbon emissions is indeed minuscule, depending on measurement around 2 %; so Ont's portion is less than .5%. It is delusional to believe that one fanatical woman on the shores of L Ont can do anything to affect global climate patterns.Reality should dictate what matters is what the big players are apt to do, China, India, Brazil and especially the US. The next Congress and maybe even next President if Trump wins, will not be remotely interested in paying tax dollars, or crippling industry to appease the UN, or climate alarmists.Even shutting down coal fired generators in Appalachian states is unlikely anytime soon.This makes Ont's moves even more hopeless and extremely foolish.To the dogmatic statement that somebody has to "do something on climate change", I respond like this. Destroying a province's industrial base and taxing citizens into poverty so a few can feel good about "the planet" is irrational thinking at its best.

My guess is the Liberals are leaking this so whatever they come out with, they can say isn't so bad, otherwise when you have bad news always make it seem much worse so what normally would be politically harmful isn't due to expectations. The good news is there is an election in 2018 and Wynne's approval rating is under 30% so there is a very good chance the Liberals will get defeated meaning this plan will never see light of day.

Martin - Exactly and I would add the only big player that is supposedly doing well on climate change is the EU, but even then a lot of it is more because due to their high population density and older more dense cities that were built before the car, people don't drive as much. I suspect if they had a population density similar to Canada, with a large resource sector they wouldn't be so green. Never mind 1990 in the Kyoto Protocol was deliberately chosen as the year so the EU could easily meet their targets while the other countries would not so the EU would have an excuse to slap green tariffs on them. The three events were one time ones as follows1. In Germany, all the inefficient factories in East Germany were shut down after re-unification since they were unproductive.2. France switched largely from coal to nuclear3. Much of the coal industry was privatized and went out of business as well as Margaret Thatcher was a huge proponent of climate change since it allowed her to smash the most leftist and militant unions which were in the coal industry.

The problem is many Canadians like to think the world cares a lot about what we do when in fact most don't really care. We are only well liked globally because we mind our business and generally don't interfere in other's affairs not because of the great work we do.

JR on:

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"It may be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron's cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end, for they do so with the approval of their consciences." -- C. S. Lewis